Rumours
by Lilybet
Summary: There's a rumour floating round the school and the Marauders can't believe it.


**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Setting: 7th year, Marauder era.**

**25/9 - Now hopefully edited to satisfaction**

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Rumours had been flying round the ancient castle for days, yet somehow no one could quite believe them this time. Even those closest to the people in question could hardly credit the whispers with truth.

"Are you joking again?" Remus asked, though those listening would have had a hard time figuring out whether his exasperation was at Sirius's words or the fact that his head now sported a light green shade of hair. Flicking his wand to restore his hair to its rightful colour, he repeated his question, "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious, who else would I be?!" ignoring the other boy's glare, Sirius flopped into a chair, "It's all over school. And he didn't tell us! His best friends!"

"It is just a rumour you know. It could be wrong." ventured Pete, curled up in front of the fire with a toasting fork in hand as he speared the next slice of bread.

"I heard this from Bertha. Bertha, you know, the girl who can't keep gossip to herself anymore than Remus can share chocolate."

"Hey!"

"Oh shush. You know I know about the stash under your first year texts in your trunk." Sirius sighed at the thought of the chocolate going to waste, "But that's not the point. The point is he didn't tell us."

"Why do you still have your first year texts?" Pete asked over Sirius's comment, the thought of keeping books no longer needed confounding him.

"Just in case. You never know."

"Never know when you'll forget seven years worth of magic?" asked the small boy, ignoring his slowly burning toast.

"Pete! Remus! What are we going to do?" Sirius wailed, ignoring the other's conversation completely in favour of his predicament. "He'll split up the Marauders!"

"What?" Pete jumped up at hearing that his group of friends might be split up. "That can't happen! We have to stop this. Where is he? I'll stop it. It can't happen!"

"Woah. Slow down Pete." Remus grabbed the eratic boy by the arm to stop him racing off to find the offending member, "Nothing is going to break up the team. James is too insane to stop pranking." and too loyal to drop his friends that quickly, Remus added silently.

"I wouldn't be too sure." said Sirius darkly, "When was the last time he actually planned a prank with us? And didn't just get involved at the last minute so he can still say that he's a Marauder." A face like thunder Sirius glared at the smouldering toast on the hearth as if it was the cause of their problems.

"Hey. Siri? Prongs knows better than to just desert us." Remus knelt down by the chair the scowling boy was slumped in, a sly grin distorting his features and lighting up his eyes with a pale golden glow. "He knows he'd be at the receiving end of all the pranks if he did that."

"Humph." Sirius tried not to start smiling at the thought of the unfortunate James under attack by three very experienced pranksters.

"How about I just go find him and see whether it's true before we all go racing off accusing him of abandoning us?" Remus glanced at Pete who was slowly migrating back towards his toast. "Yes?"

"All right. At least let's hear it from him." Pete said, determined to be there when James was confronted.

"Like we should have in the first place."

With purposeful strides the trio left the common room and commenced a castle-wide search for their recalcitrant fourth member. Sirius and Pete interrogated anyone they came across for information, though this usually ended up with Remus having to apologise for the victim's hair, clothes, bag, or anything else they had on their person, as Sirius couldn't seem to pass up any opportunity to prank. Especially since:

"Have you seen James Potter?"

"Potter? No. Is it true that... argh!"

"Sorry. The feathers should fall off in a couple of hours."

"How does everyone know except us?! Why are we the last to know?" Sirius rounded on Remus, "You have all the answers. Why weren't we told first?"

"Contrary to popular belief I do not have all the answers. And will you please stop turning people into giant chickens."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if they didn't come to us when they first heard then they are chickens."

Shaking his head at Sirius's logic Remus could only watch in despair as the pair jumped another poor first year who didn't know any better than to get out of the way when the Marauders were on the rampage. Leaving floating feathers behind them as they swept the halls in their search they slowly closed in on the location of their missing friend.

"Last I heard, Mr Black, he was with Professor Flitwick in his office. And please don't curse any more students, Mr Filch is quite upset at the number of feather-drifts that have appeared in the corridors." Professor McGonagall's lips may have twitched slightly at the thought of the number of pillows that could be filled from the boys fowl rampage, or it may have just been the light Sirius could never quite tell with the Scottish woman.

"Thanks Minnie! You're a gem."

The look of surprise on the professor's face at being called a 'gem' was enough to bring his famous grin out as Sirius raced off down the corridor, Pete and Remus close behind.

After accosting a third year girl on the Charms corridor for further directions they ended up standing outside a disused classroom.

"Well?" Sirius asked, suddenly nervous at what he might find inside.

"Well what?" returned Remus,

"This was your idea. You open it."

"Fine." and after knocking first, which earned him a pair of very odd looks, he turned the handle and opened the wooden door. The other boys tried to see past him but Remus was stunned into stillness at the sight before him.

"Remus?" Pete, being shorter than the other boys, had no chance of seeing what had stopped the book-addicted boy in his tracks. Gentle shoving finally achieved what words couldn't and the three boys stood in the doorway dumbfounded by what they saw.

"Guys?" James inquired, "Um. What are you doing here?"

The sight that met their eyes was not quite what they expected: James was kneeling in the middle of the room his hands completely covered in dirt, around him were troughs filled with beautiful flowers in every colour. It seemed that in his spare time James had been exercising his green fingers.

"Are those...Lilies?" asked Remus coming out of his daze.

James opened his mouth to answer, but whatever he was going to say was overtaken by the laughter that issued forth from behind Remus. Turning, Remus saw Sirius clutching his sides breathless from the laughter that had captured him.

"You...rumour...Lily." he managed to gasp out between laughs before collapsing in a heap on the floor.

"What?" James looked completely confused at the sight of his best friend rolling around with laughter.

"I think what he is trying to say is that we heard a rumour." as Remus caught onto the funny side of things he tried to hold off his laughter, "That you and Lily..." the laughter won the battle and it was left up to Pete to fill in the befuddled boy on the rumours of Hogwarts.

"According to several sources," Pete shot a glare at Sirius, who was nearly crying with laughter, for worrying him, "You and Lily were seen in a disused classroom together. The rumour went that you two were seeing each other."

"Oh."

"Someone must have seen you here with your...lilies." Finally catching onto the joke Pete slid down the wall as laughter burst forth.

"Okay, so what's so funny? They are for Lily you know." James indicated the swath of lilies carpeting the classroom.

"We believed that you, James Potter, had finally caught your 'Lily-flower'." Sirius gasped, "Looks like you have, just not the Evans variety."

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